I cant wait. Hopefully he has in in ring roll and I know you guys are making fun of it with the "YeeHaw" wrestling comments but I really liked the southern vibe TNA had back in the early days, Wcw had a little bit of it too. It just seems to feel more like old school wrestling and something about it I found appealing even tho I dont live in the country or have any country influence in my life. The list of Former Tna talents and Current TNA talents on there way out plus guys on the indy circuit definatly have me intrigued. It would be awesome if they had TV backing them. I would even watch it on CMT.

Big Dave Meltz wrote:The proposed Toby Keith-Jeff Jarrett promotion, which is a long way from happening, stemmed almost exactly as you’d think. TNA was for sale and Jarrett through his connections with the Nashville music industry and Keith in particular, tried to put together a bid to buy the company. The deal was very close at one point. Bob Carter came to Keith to finalize the deal and the two sides were close on a price, although they were not quite there. The belief is they were going to hash it out, but Carter only had one request in selling, which was that Dixie Carter would remain with her title, have some power in the company and remain a television character. Keith said he wasn’t going to buy the company with any creative limitations, so the deal actually fell apart because Bob Carter in the end was going to protect his daughter. Someone in TNA who was aware of how it went down noted to us that, “That’s why we all are still here,” noting if it was about business, TNA would have never survived after the last golden carrots (prime time TV and Hulk Hogan) failed to increase popularity or take the company from losing money. At that point, the feeling was from Keith and Jarrett that they didn’t need to buy the company, as they could start their own company from scratch. The deal falling through would have been shortly before Jarrett quit TNA in December. The other thing noted is when this story got out inside of TNA, those who had tried to believe the Janice Carter memo and thought the idea was that the Carters wouldn’t sell, and the talks were for just a minority investor, realized they’d been had.

Jeff Jarrett produced about a 15 second video for his new promotion just saying “We’re coming.” One person who has knowledge of the project described it as being in step one of a ten step project of launching, and that it would likely be late in the year at the earliest before it’s off the ground. As noted, the kingmakers here are likely to be Spike TV.

There is plenty of room for a true #2 in this country. The demand is defiantly there, There are still soo many fans who have been turned off by the WWE, people that dont like TNA or the poor production value of ROH. There are still allot of fans from the WcW era that are begging for a true alternative. There are still thousands of Indie fans out there who do not support the E or A. I see them week in and week out.If there are so many in just this little part of the country there have to be many many more out there.

RefChrist wrote:There is plenty of room for a true #2 in this country. The demand is defiantly there, There are still soo many fans who have been turned off by the WWE, people that dont like TNA or the poor production value of ROH. There are still allot of fans from the WcW era that are begging for a true alternative. There are still thousands of Indie fans out there who do not support the E or A. I see them week in and week out.If there are so many in just this little part of the country there have to be many many more out there.

What exactly does a wrestling company have to do in order to win back this mythical fanbase?

In my mind, the only way wrestling is going to see mainstream relevance in this day and age is if they completely re-invent peoples' imagining of what a wrestling product should be. It's not enough to simply produce good shows judged by the standards of a typical wrestling show.

Xero wrote:There isn't enough room for a second major wrestling organization in the US. The demand just isn't there. A niche product like TNA in the early years would be fine though.

It's a basic fact of economics that if there's demand for a product, there's enough room for a competitor to come in and win over buyers with either better quality or lower prices. There's enough room for a second major promotion, but it would take a crafty owner with deep pockets and strong industry connections. With WWE as the only major game in town, you'd have to pull WCW-like roster tactics and steal away a few major names while they're rising or at the top of their game to get enough casual fans away from WWE to make a second promotion profitable.

A niche product like TNA's early years would be a distant third option at best, not a serious second promotion. It would be fun to see, though.

Xero wrote:There isn't enough room for a second major wrestling organization in the US. The demand just isn't there. A niche product like TNA in the early years would be fine though.

It's a basic fact of economics that if there's demand for a product, there's enough room for a competitor to come in and win over buyers with either better quality or lower prices. There's enough room for a second major promotion, but it would take a crafty owner with deep pockets and strong industry connections. With WWE as the only major game in town, you'd have to pull WCW-like roster tactics and steal away a few major names while they're rising or at the top of their game to get enough casual fans away from WWE to make a second promotion profitable.

A niche product like TNA's early years would be a distant third option at best, not a serious second promotion. It would be fun to see, though.

My whole argument is that there's not enough demand for a wrestling product as least not wrestling as we know it today. The boom period of the 90s and early 00s was the culmination of what began in the 70s and 80s, and the popularity of wrestling has little to nothing to do with the quality of the product. In 2014, Raw is basically pulling Nitro numbers from 2000 despite being a vastly superior show.

I refer you to the post above yours.

The rest of what you say is easy to type on a keyboard, but it just is not practical. For example, I could say the exact same thing about Sega re-entering the console race, but I'm not going to do that because it's just not realistic to assume that some Ted Turner-like billionaire is going to pop out of thin air to throw money at this unproven product to go up against a corporate giant.

It's far more logical to go after a segment of the population that the WWE has never appealed to (niche product) and is a much easier goal to obtain.

- Jeff Jarrett wrote on Twitter that he will release a video later today with his first comments since leaving TNA.

- Jarrett's project with Toby Keith was mentioned during a country music news segment on Sirius XM's The Highway. The report said that they tried to buy TNA Wrestling and since that "apparently fell through" the "founder of TNA" and Keith will start their own "massive promotion."

He's searching the globe for talent and he's gonna be documenting the whole process. No formal announcement yet, but seems like it will be soon. He thinks wrestling is about to hit another boom period.

Video of him & Karen, full interview coming Monday. Looks like Jeff & Karen will be officially announcing the promotion on Monday. Toby Keith and a bunch of other famous/rich friends of the Jarrett's are rumored to be backing the company. Jeff has been actively scouting talent at Indy, Lucha, Japanese, and other feds.

Jeff Jarrett has released a new video in which he and his wife Karen Jarrett address his departure from TNA. "Was it the toughest decision I have ever made in my life?" Jeff asks. "No." He went on to say he would not classify it as a tough decision because he knew where he wanted to go. You can view the video at Vimeo.com/87442646.

Powell's POV: Jeff also recalls getting advice from Toby Keith at the first TNA event. Of course, Keith was interested in buying TNA and is rumored to be in business with Jarrett on a new pro wrestling promotion. Jarrett doesn't make any official announcements, but said he does believe "the vision I have and the vision that I am going to execute is going to be catered to the wrestling fans." It's definitely worth checking out.

- The latest news on Jeff Jarrett's new pro wrestling promotion is that it will be financed by a group of partners, not just country music star Toby Keith. Keith reportedly has a net worth of $500 million, which is said to be more than what Vince McMahon was worth before WWE stock shot up. The financial backers for the promotion, when the group was looking at buying TNA, were described as "Nashville music investors."

Jarrett also recently appeared at a sports convention in Nashville on February 22. He wouldn't talk much about the promotion, but he did confirm that it was "a go." He also discussed the idea of doing a weekly Tuesday night TV show.

contagioustruth wrote:My whole argument is that there's not enough demand for a wrestling product as least not wrestling as we know it today. The boom period of the 90s and early 00s was the culmination of what began in the 70s and 80s, and the popularity of wrestling has little to nothing to do with the quality of the product. In 2014, Raw is basically pulling Nitro numbers from 2000 despite being a vastly superior show.

I refer you to the post above yours.

The rest of what you say is easy to type on a keyboard, but it just is not practical. For example, I could say the exact same thing about Sega re-entering the console race, but I'm not going to do that because it's just not realistic to assume that some Ted Turner-like billionaire is going to pop out of thin air to throw money at this unproven product to go up against a corporate giant.

It's far more logical to go after a segment of the population that the WWE has never appealed to (niche product) and is a much easier goal to obtain.

There's a significant difference between modern U.S. demand and the level of U.S. demand that existed in the 90s. I don't buy Monday night ratings as indicative of that demand, because WWE is pulling in even more money today than they were back then, and that's exactly what any true competitor is looking at-- not how impressive a rating they can draw going head to head with Raw.

TNA has already cast its lot as a second major promotion, and considering how well they've been drawing overseas, there's no reason for them not to. TNA or another company can tap into the entire WWE audience with no direct programming with the right resources, but even being a distant second is better than being a niche product, because the people behind TNA are in it to make money, not to cater to niche audiences in high school gyms and ballrooms.